//stuarts New Tank Cycle

[BIG BAD BARRY]

I dont have loaches but i frequently read that because of their shy nature they are best kept in groups of 6 or more to get the best. Also, your tank may be a bit small for the room they require.

Neon tetras are considered to be quite delicate due to their extensive overbreeding and they are recommended when your filter has matured for 6 months.

 

[//stuart]

I dont have loaches but i frequently read that because of their shy nature they are best kept in groups of 6 or more to get the best. Also, your tank may be a bit small for the room they require.

Neon tetras are considered to be quite delicate due to their extensive overbreeding and they are recommended when your filter has matured for 6 months.

Might give the loaches a miss then.

 

[waterdrop]

This is a Fluval U2 internal, right? Interesting how the "bouncing" has continued so long. One day it's zero, one day it's one. I sometimes think I'm beginning to feel that the 3rd phase pattern for internals is somewhat more likely to do this bounce thing whereas the larger externals are more likely to just stall in the second phase longer but then make a more dramatic drop to zero that just sticks at zero or 0.25 more solidly. I don't know, probably I'm just wrong because it's seat of the pants rather than a data based observation.

I know it sounds dull but I continue to use 70 days as a bit of an average endpoint where I see a lot more of the stubborn fishless cycles finally end or show signs of finally ending and so when I see various odd things like this bouncing back in the 50 day range then it just seems like one of the looks the feedback can take and not anything that is particularly wrong. As always, it will be interesting to see when this filter can manage a qualification week.

Am I seeing that you dosed bicarb at least once before (twice?) but that you didn't once this last 8 that you had and worked itself down to 7.4? I know you may wonder if the sodium of the bicarb will hang around in the gravel and filter after the big water change but never really seen any cases where there we thought there were ill effects from this so if I were you I might dose a couple of teaspoons (thinking this would be slightly less than the 3 that you used before (?)) to raise that pH back up.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[//stuart]

Day  Date   PH    PH(high)  Ammonia  Nitrate   Nitrite
55   14Apr  ---   ---       ---      ---       5.0ppm     07:30
55   14Apr  ---   ---       ---      ---       0.0ppm     18:00 + 4ml ammonia@19:30
56   15Apr  ---   ---       ---      ---       2.0ppm     07:30
56   15Apr  ---   ---       ---      ---       2.0ppm     09:00 (2nd check @ 9am) + 4ml ammonia @ 20:30
57   16Apr  ---   ---       ---      ---       2.0ppm     08:20
57   16Apr  ---   ---       ---      ---       0.0ppm     14:20 + 4ml ammonia@21:00
58   17Apr  6.0   <7.4      2.0ppm   20ppm     0.5ppm     09:30

ARGH!

Got a PH crash down to at least 6, and ammonia is now not clearing after 12 hours!

What do I do now?

This is a Fluval U2 internal, right? Interesting how the "bouncing" has continued so long.

Yep, its a U2 model - I've very happy with the filter, whisper quiet!

Am I seeing that you dosed bicarb at least once before (twice?) but that you didn't once this last 8 that you had and worked itself down to 7.4?
~~waterdrop~~

Only did 1 dose of bicarb to try and kick everything into action (mainly due to frustration!) but I expect you can't hurry nature!

Now, I've got a PH crash, should I just dose back with Bicarb ?

 

[Tizer]

50% water change? or is that not recommended in a fishless cycle?

 

[//stuart]

50% water change? or is that not recommended in a fishless cycle?

I did a 100% water change on day 53 (5 days ago), and PH was as normal 7.6 for me.

 

[BIG BAD BARRY]

You appear to be close to the end.
Surprise how low your ph has dropped in that short period of time since the water change.
I think our water is the same so its buffering capacity should be the same.
Have you repeated the test just to make sure?

100% water change and test ph every 12hrs with the rest of the testing.
Any sign of a drop again then use bicarb.
You will have sufficient test reagent left for ages even if you tested twice a day since you started the cycle.

 

[mishka83]

sorry to butt in here but what's the dosage for the bicarb?

i've had a pH crash today too!!

 

[waterdrop]

Once one makes the decision at all to do a big water change in the end stages then what I like to do is gravel clean the water down until it hits the substrate, refill with conditioned, temp-matched water and then redose ammonia and redose bicarb to bring the pH back up in to the 8.0 to 8.2 range. I usually recommend that you try 2 teaspoons per 50L (you have to calculate that out for your situation obviously) but then see what kind of pH that acheives in your particular system and consider slight further adjustments. This kind of a big water change will often shock the bacteria into a day or two of different behavior but usually after that they should bounce back nicely, if not sooner. The big water change is nice for them because it gets a lot of nitrite and nitrate out and I don't worry about the bicarb as it will go out with the big water changes at the end of fishless cycling and you of course won't do it anymore with fish in.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[//stuart]

Thanks for your assistance guys.

Before I posted about the PH drop, I retested twice!


Since I only did a water change a few days ago, I decided to add in 3tsp of Bicarb, and this bounced the PH back to 8.0 in no time.

After adding in ammonia at 10pm, at 7am the next day I had zero for both Nitrite and Ammonia.

Day  Date   PH    PH(high)  Ammonia  Nitrate   Nitrite
58   17Apr  6.0   <7.4      2.0ppm   20ppm     0.5ppm     10:15 3tsp sodium bicarb
58   17Apr  7.6   8.0       ---      ---       ---        12:05
58   17Apr  7.6   8.0       ---      ---       ---        22:00 + 4ml ammonia
59   18Apr  7.6   8.0       0.0      ---       0.0        07:50 (double zeros at 10hrs!)
59   18Apr  7.6   8.0       0.0      ---       0.0        19:15 + 4ml ammonia

Hopefully this trend will continue!

 

[BIG BAD BARRY]

Excellent!

 

[//stuart]

Hopefully this trend will continue!

It didnt!!!

 

[waterdrop]

Double zeros at 10 hours certainly gets your qualification week started. WD

 

[//stuart]

Double zeros at 10 hours certainly gets your qualification week started. WD

Its never been near since!

Only a 1 day blip, since then double zero at around 14hrs

 

[BIG BAD BARRY]

Thats close.
Mine was bobbing around at that level for about a week.